2 Performers, 30 minutes, 30 – 200 spectators
_ Try to keep the ball going as long as possible.
_ Modulate speed in order to make the exchange sustainable.
_ Stay interested.
_ If you miss the ball, it’s okay, just keep going.
Speed Glue is a choreographic score for two professional table tennis players. Rather than playing to win points and end the game as quickly as possible, the players work together to keep the ball going for as long as they can. Setting aside the competitive structure of the game, these athletes meet in an improvisatory exchange: a febrile, intricate and rhythmically virtuosic dance.
“… a crash course on the topic of skill—not just the on players’ own virtuosity, which in its precision, focus and risk of failure matched the daring of classical ballet, but on an audience’s own ability to watch.” – Joseph Henry (Canadian Art)
Credits
Concept and Direction: Simon Grenier-Poirier and Dorian Nuskind-Oder
Players: Antoine Bernadet (SE/CA), Edward Ly (CA), Miikka O’Connor (FI), Jeff Sylvestre-Décary (CA), Otto Tenilla (FI), Pierre-Luc Thériault (CA)
Rehearsal Director: Pierre-Luc Thériault
Executive Producer: Je suis Julio
Co-production: Festival TransAmériques
International development: DLDanse
Past Presentations
Festival TransAmeriques (Montréal, 2019)
Chinese National Table Tennis Museum (Shanghai, 2019)
Québec Focus showcase, TPAM Fringe (Yokohama, 2020)
Presentations of the work in progress
THE CURRENT SESSIONS, VOL VII: On Resistance (New York, 2017)
Galerie UQO, Trilogie Electoral 1 (Gatineau, 2017)
Musée d’art contemporain des Laurentides, Trilogie Electoral 2 (St. Jérôme, 2017)
EXPERIMENTICA 2018, Chapter Arts Centre (Cardiff, 2018)
Série B, La chapelle scènes contemporains (Montréal, 2018)
Residencies
fabrik Potsdam (CALQ Studio Residency)
Centre Chorégraphique O Vertigo
Publications
Henry, Joseph. “Set and Match.” Canadian Art, November 14, 2017
Grenier-Poirier, Simon and Dorian Nuskind-Oder. “Neither bigger balls, nor slower glues.” Le Merle 5, no.1 (Winter 2017): 77-82.
